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Apple launches iPad, a big version of the iPhone, with iBooks

Steve Jobs revealed the Apple iPad today, its much-awaited tablet computer (see live notes on TechCrunch). Jobs positions it as a third computing device between a laptop and a smartphone. It is geared towards the “key tasks” of Web browsing, email, sharing photos, watching videos, playing games, and reading digital books. All current iPhone apps will run on the device, as well as new games and digital books designed specifically for it. An enhanced iPhone SDK released today will support both the iPhone and the iPad.

Some info about the device which looks like a big iPhone: it has a 9.7 inch display, weighs 1.5 pounds, and is half-an-inch thick. It is powered by new chip made by Apple itself, a 1 GHz A4 and will come with 16Gb to 64 GB of storage. It supports WiFi (3G connectivity is an option), has an accelerometer, compass, and built-in speaker and microphone, just like the iPhone. The screen is a full capacitive multi-touch screen with LED backlighting. Battery life is supposed to be 10 hours. In addition to WiFi, it will have a 3G option from AT&T.

The Wifi-only version, with 16GB of memory, will cost $499. A 32GB version will be $599, 64 GB will be $699, and with 3G from AT&T it will cost $829. Plans for distribution in Europe have not been unveiled by Jobs.

In parallel to the launch of the iPad, Apple also announced the launch of the iBook store. The books will be displayed on a bookshelf and the pages inside the books are displayed on an off-white background. Page turns are handled simply by tapping on the right or left sides of the screen and showcase a nice page-curling effect.

Lots of of bloggers not really happy with the new iPad.There was too much hoopla regarding it and lots of people got turned off.Quite frankly, I can actually see some of the awesome potential uses of the device. Third-party soft for playing music, games, newspapers and magazines and books, tons of cool stuff, but IMHO they just didn’t really sell it properly (aside from the books). It smells kinda incomplete

Lots of of bloggers are not too pleased with this new iPad.There was just too much hoopla over it and alot people got disapointed.You see, I actually see great deal of the cool potential uses of this device. Third-party applications for composing tunes, games, papers and magazines and books, tons of cool stuff, but IMHO they failed to sell it very well (excluding the books). It looks kinda not finished